Crook County wrestlers headed to state

Published 12:00 am Sunday, February 23, 2014

LA PINE — Crook County’s season of dominance continued Saturday as the Cowboys ran away with the Class 4A Special District 2 team title at La Pine High School, scoring a whopping 551.5 points while advancing a school-record 23 wrestlers to next week’s state tournament in Portland.

Trayton Libolt (113 pounds), Kurt Mode (120), Brent Bannon (126), Hayden Bates (132), Collbran Meeker (145), The Cowboys’ Tyler Berger (152), Brendan Harkey (160), Gunnar Robirts (182), Trevor Rasmussen (220) and Jason Williams (285) ended the two-day meet as individual champions.

“We’ve got short-term goals and long-term goals and winning this was a short-term goal,” Crook County coach Jake Huffman said. “We wanted to beat our district score from a year ago and we did and we wanted to take more kids to state than we did last year, and we did that by two.”

La Grande placed second with 245 points, Ridgeview was third with 224.5 and Ontario placed fourth with 166.5 points. Madras (sixth, 92 points), host La Pine (eighth, 81) and Sisters (ninth, 4) also were among the nine teams competing for berths at state.

Boomer Fleming led the Ravens with a district title at 195 pounds. Ridgeview qualified nine wrestlers for state. Jarred Dupont paced the White Buffaloes, who will send three athletes to state, with a runner-up finish to Bannon at 126 pounds. Christopher Love highlighted the tournament for the Hawks with a third-place showing at 160. He and Thorin Wilson at 120 pounds will represent La Pine in Portland.

The Class 4A state wrestling tournament starts Friday at 8:30 a.m. at Memorial Coliseum.

In other prep events Saturday:

WRESTLING

Bulldogs win 13th straight district title, advance 15 to state: CULVER — Culver thoroughly dominated the Class 2A/1A Special District 3 championship tournament, claiming nine individual district champions en route to scoring a tourney-best 403.5 points to grab its 13th consecutive district title. Runner-up Central Linn managed just 185 points. The Bulldogs, who will advance 15 wrestlers to next week’s 2A/1A state tournament in Portland, will be on the hunt for their seventh state championship in eight years. Christopher Munoz (106 pounds), Marco Retano (113), Saxton Schaffner (126), Bolt Anglen (132), Tucker Davis (138), Clay McClure (145), Kyle Easterly (170), Isaias Gutierrez (182), and Josh Hendrix (285) all won district titles for Culver.

Alpine skiing

Bend boys and girls win: MOUNT BACHELOR — The Bend girls took first place at an Oregon State Ski Association (OSSA) race, besting Summit by 16 points. Shelby Cutter led the Lava Bears, winning the girls event with a combined time of 1 minute, 12.09 seconds. The Storm was led by Natalie Merrill’s fifth-place finish in 1:22.26. Mountain View claimed fifth and Sisters finished sixth. The Bend boys beat Summit by 12 points to take first as well. Bend’s Keenan Seidel won the boys event with a combined time of 1:09.54. Jared Schiemer led the Storm with a 1:10.32 second-place finish. Mountain View finished fourth.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Trinity Lutheran 46, North Lake 41: KLAMATH FALLS — The Saints of Bend jumped out to a 25-17 halftime lead and held on for victory in the Mountain Valley League playoff contest at Oregon Institute of Technology to earn a berth in the Class 1A state postseason. Katie Murphy scored a game-high 23 points, grabbed seven rebounds and recorded three steals to lead Trinity Lutheran. Emily Eidler added six points and seven boards for the Saints (15-8), who play at Prairie City on Tuesday in the 1A state playoffs. Kendra Davidson paced North Lake (15-8) with 16 points and 19 rebounds.

BOYS BASKETBALL

Butte Falls 52, Gilchrist 43: KLAMATH FALLS — The Grizzlies’ season came to an end in the Mountain Valley League playoffs at Oregon Institute of Technology. Gilchrist ends the year 15-9 overall after going 8-3 in league play.

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